Fiction: Legal Theft–Running Away (507 words)

27Mar

When mountain ranges cut across the horizon before and behind her and the blue Toyota still hovered in her rearview mirror, Terrin’s better judgment gave way to curiosity. She turned all the way around in her seat, staring out the back window. “Do you think they think they are being sneaky?” She asked Alec in the driver’s seat, “Or do they want us to know we’re being followed?”

“I don’t know, to be honest, but I’m not sure which is worse,” Alec answered, glancing back up to the rearview again, “Because if they think they are being sneaky, I’m disappointed that they would send such tragic amateurs after us.” Alec swerved into another lane, going through the motions of trying to lose the Toyota. “And if they want us to know we’re being followed, then they are confident in their ability to take us—and it’s not like we’re easy to subdue.” Alec cut off a silver Subaru who laid on the horn for a solid thirty seconds.

“Hmph, you’re right,” Terrin groaned, turning back and around and falling heavily in her seat again with her arms crossed over her chest, “Disappointing.”

Alec held out his outstretched hand, wiggling his fingers until Terrin interlaced her fingers in his, squeezing his hand. “Are you starting to regret running away with me?” he asked.

“No, God no. Definitely not in a hundred years.” Terrin answered immediately, “I just wish we’d run away a little more effectively. We’re better than this, you know. If we’d given it twenty minutes more thought…” Terrin trailed off with a vague little gesture of their interlocked hands.

“Ah, but if we’d given it twenty minutes more thought, then we would have lost that whole spur of the moment spontaneous act of rebellion due to love thing we had going for us,” Alec countered. He could practically feel Terrin rolling her eyes, so he pulled their joined hands to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. “I’m not wrong.”

“You’re not wrong,” Terrin agreed, pulling their hands back towards her to kiss the back of his hand. “But the spontaneous act of rebellion due to love thing is definitely going to make our lives a little bit harder in the short term, that’s all I’m saying.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Alec sighed, glancing at the blue Toyota again. “What do you say, Ter? Want to make it a proper high-speed chase? See how desperate they are to catch us again? I bet I could get up to a hundred ten on this street.”

Terrin turned to glance behind them again, then gave Alec a huge grin. “Gun it, Love. Let’s see what this baby can do.”

“Oh, I love you,” Alec laughed, leaning forward in the seat as he stepped on the accelerator. Terrin laughed, rolled down her window, and waved to the blue Toyota as they put distance between them, before showing them a rude hand gesture. “Let’s show them what spontaneous acts of rebellion due to love are capable of.”